Palau has 21,000 residents scattered across 250 islands. With no military, Palau employs a marine police division with just 18 members and one patrol ship to cover roughly 230,000 square miles of ocean.

Deploying Global Park Defense for Marine

New laws protecting critical ‘No Take’ Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) were put in place across Palau in 2015. After the first 2 years of socialization and communications with local communities, Marine Wardens are now making their first arrests and citations against blatant illegal fishing in Palau Northern Reefs with support from Global Conservation using Global Park Defense and Marine Monitor (M2).

Under international law, a country’s ‘‘exclusive economic zone,’’ the waters where it maintains fishing and mineral rights, extends 200 nautical miles from its coasts.

Beginning with the Palau MPA Enforcement Strategy developed by Marcel Bigue of a detailed plan is being developed for MPA Enforcement by Global Conservation and our Partners.

In a given year, Palau faces 50 to 100 incursions by overseas pirate vessels, and local communities also enter ‘No Take’ MPAs illegally, often at night. According to the New York Times, for any given patrol, the chief of the marine police weighs a list of variables — credible threat, distance to target, available crew, sufficient fuel, weather — and decides if it’s worth dispatching Marine Wardens.

Global Conservation is focusing on the ‘No Take’ Ebiil Conservation Area, a known grouper and fish spawning aggregation site. The Ebiil Channel is open for visitors who have permits and so the rangers monitor their activities in the channel, including snorkeling and diving.

Ngarchelong recently implemented new regulations, and the Governor has instituted a “grace period” for fishermen to adjust and learn about the new rules. There is ongoing education and outreach, and the Governor is still determining when the regulations will be fully in place and enforceable. The “no-entry” MPA is still enforceable during this grace period.

Also, the State Legislature is currently ironing out conflicts in the recently approved fisheries regulations with other state laws. Rangers have been asked not to fully enforce MPA Protection with arrests but to conduct outreach and awareness until this is complete. This will change in 2018 to real protection and enforcement, even for families of the Marine Wardens.

Recommended actions to increase the effectiveness of Marine Wardens include:

Improving communication system for the Marine Warden teams to have continuous line of communications with their base and up the chain of command with a backup system.

Deploying waterproof radios for each officer including radios on each patrol vessel with antenna for effective communications. The program needs a repeater purchased and installed at the lookout point at Todai to increase the communication range of the patrolling teams.

Tiny archipelago seeks to create world’s sixth-largest area to be fully protected from fishing or drilling.

In 2015, the tiny western Pacific archipelago of Palau has approved the creation of a marine sanctuary twice the size of Mexico. Conservationists said the 500,000 sq km (193,000 sq mile) sanctuary would be the world’s sixth-largest fully protected area – meaning no fishing, or other uses such as drilling for oil. The national congress of the country of around 21,000 people approved the Palau National Marine Sanctuary Act, which will see 80% of the nation’s maritime territory designated as a reserve.